A conventional electrical connector for terminating a flat cable, a flat flexible circuit or the like, typically includes an insulating housing having a slot for receiving a connecting end or edge of the cable. A plurality of pairs of terminals are mounted in the housing and arranged at regular spaced intervals longitudinally of the slot. In some applications, an actuator includes a blade for insertion into the slot to press the connecting end of the cable against contact portions of the terminals.
The terminals mounted in the insulating housing cannot be increased in number beyond a certain physical limit of terminal-to-terminal interval spacing. In an attempt to increase the number of conductors to be accommodated by the connector, flat cables are used with conductors on both sides thereof. The two-sided cable is rather expensive to manufacture. As an alternative, an unduly elongated connector could be provided, but this often is not even possible where there are space restrictions on the connector. Flat cables have been proposed with conductors or contact pads in two parallel rows at the connecting end of the cable on only one side thereof. However, the one-sided, multiple-row contact cables cause the connector to be non-symmetrical or unbalanced, because the terminals typically are mounted in the housing, all of the one side of the cable-receiving slot facing the contact/conductor side of the cable. The present invention is directed to solving this myriad of problems in increasing the density of electrical connectors for flat cables or circuits.
It should be understood that the use of the term "flat cable" herein and in the claims hereof is not intended to be limiting in nature, because the concepts of the invention are equally applicable for use in connectors which accommodate flat rigid cable, flat flexible cable, rigid printed circuit boards, flexible circuits and the like. Therefore, the phrase "flat cable" is being used in its broadest or generic sense.